J.D. Greear on "What Counts as Plagiarism in a Sermon?"

Pastor J.D. Greear has an excellent article HERE on the method he uses to determine when to cite sources and avoid plagiarism. His main points are listed below.

1. If I ever preach the gist of another person’s sermon, meaning that I used the lion’s share of their message’s organization, points, or applications, I give credit.

2. If I glean an interpretation of a passage from someone, but the organization of the points, application and presentation are my own, I generally do not feel the need to cite. 

3. When I take a direct point or a line or the creative wording of a truth from someone, I feel like I should cite.

4. When I give a list that someone else has come up with or offer some piece of cultural analysis, I feel like I should cite. 

5. If I hear a story told by someone else that reminds me of a story of your own, and I tell that story from my own life, I don’t think I need always to identify where I got the idea for that story from originally.

Pulpit Plagiarism in 1830

Here’s a quick and fast history lesson. Back in the days of the Second Great Awakening, a Presbyterian pastor named Thomas Campbell came to America. Campbell began to teach different practices regarding communion. This led to a split among the churches and Thomas Campbell’s son, Alexander Campbell, took the reigns and partnered with several Baptists to form two new denominations: the Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ or the Christian Church.

In 1830, Alexander Campbell began publishing a religious magazine called The Millennial Harbinger. In the very first, Campbell expounded upon what he considered the "shameful" practice of plagiarizing sermons. Here a few of my favorite quotes:  

"It must be a painful thing to an intelligent man to hear young men...repeat sermons full of rich thought, expressed in appropriate and eloquent language. It looks like the efforts of a giant put forth by an infant."

"The practice is now carried to a shameful extent -- and it ought to be exposed; the practice of committing to memory short sermons composed by others, and delivering them...with the profession...that they are extempore."

"We have ourselves heard eloquent sermons from young men who cannot spell correctly in two syllables; and who understand nothing, even the structure of a common English sentence. Nay, worse; we have heard Greek and Chaldaic quoted by a preacher who did not know a noun from a verb in his own nor any language. We guard our young men against this growing evil."

I've included an image of the original source below, and you can find the origianal sources in their totality HERE and HERE.

"A NOTE ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF SERMONS"

Andy Naselli of the Gospel Coalition shares the statement against plagiarism that was originally designed by the leadership of TGC and originally posted on their resources page.

I believe this statement adequately summarizes the ultimate effect of a plagiarizing pastor: "...your ministry will sooner or later, and deservedly, become sterile."

It also adds wise counsel for how to prevent the temptation to plagiarize: "Listen to many sermons, not just one or two. You will be far less likely to steal..."

You can read the rest of Naselli's post HERE.

A NOTE ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF SERMONS

The instant availability of thousands of expository sermons and addresses prompts us to reflect a little on how they should not be used, and how they should be used.

To take the latter first: many of our Council members avidly read the sermons of others, or, increasingly commonly, listen to them while they are driving or walking or jogging. Good preaching not only opens up texts, but helps us learn how others tackle the challenge of structure, apply Scripture to their particular congregations, relate their texts to the central themes of God and the gospel, and much more. We soon sense their urgency and God-given unction. We are sent back to the study and to our knees to become better workers who do not need to be ashamed of the way we handle the word of truth.

The bad way to listen to the sermons of others is to select one such sermon on the topic or passage you have chosen and then simply steal it, passing it off as if it is your own work. This is, quite frankly, theft, and thieves, Paul tells us, will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:10). Yet in some ways that is not the most serious aspect of this form of plagiarism. Rather, it is the deep damage you are doing to yourself and others by not studying the Bible for yourself. Ministers of the gospel are supported by their congregations so they will give themselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. That demands rigorous study. A faithful minister of the gospel is never merely a biological tape recorder or CD, thoughtlessly parroting what someone else learned, thought through, prayed over, and recorded. Indulge in this exercise and before long you will starve your own soul—and, no matter how good the sermons you steal, your ministry will sooner or later, and deservedly, become sterile, for the stamp of inauthenticity will be all over you.

One helpful suggestion: Listen to many sermons, not just one or two. You will be far less likely to steal, and far more likely to be stimulated and helped, if you listen to five or ten sermons than if you listen to one.

 Additional HT to Justin Taylor.

Doug Goothuis on Technological Temptations Pastors Face

Dr. Doug Groothuis of Denver Seminary wrote an excellent article a few years ago entitled, Keeping Integrity in a Compromised World: Resisting Two Technological Temptations. The article was originally published in Denver Seminary Magazine (Fall, 2007).

Dr. Groothuis outlines two tempations faced by pastors. The first temptation is neglecting scripture memorization by relying on Bible software and digital technology. The second temptation is neglecting sermon preparation by downloading and lifting other people's sermons word-for-word without crediting the original author. the second temptation is ovbiously the one most relevant to our website. I've excerpted the relevant part below, but you may read the entire article HERE.

The renowned preacher Phillip Brooks astutely wrote that “preaching is truth through personality.” More than that, Christian ministry as a whole should be the demonstration of truth through personality. As followers of the Truth Incarnate (John 14:6), we should radiate God’s truth through a godly personality, one full of Christian virtues, such as faith, hope, and love. We should “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). We should live out Christian integrity, a personal wholeness of holy purpose, and refuse to use devious or improper methods (2 Corinthians 1:12). But keeping our integrity in a compromised world brings its challenges...

The contemporary scene offers a host of counterfeits in the ways of ministry and Christian living in general. I will focus on only ways areas in which pastors and other Christian workers may be seduced by the spirit of the age instead of relying on the Spirit of God: relying on Bible factoids instead of possessing a deep knowledge of Scripture, and sermon stealing...

Temptation #2: Although I lament it, some preachers are sinning against God in their methods of sermon preparation. From what I can gather, this may be fairly widespread. This, too, is encouraged by an irresponsible use of computer technologies; and it robs preachers of their integrity before God and their congregations. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal noted that various web pages are offering word-for-word transcripts of sermons by well-known preachers to those who desire to produce successful sermons. Instead of putting in the study time, prayerfully laboring to forge a godly message through the prism of one’s own character, some claim it’s better to acquire material from sermons that are “road tested.” One pastor said, “If you got something that’s a good product, why go out and beat your head against the wall and try to come up with it yourself?”[4]

There is nothing wrong with learning from others and incorporating their insights into one’s sermons. The Internet provides some solid resources for this, if one knows where to look. Some in the two-thirds world—who have very limited access to study tools that those in the United States take for granted—are helped by getting basic sermon outlines online. Nevertheless, we are commanded by God not to steal (Exodus 20:15). Lifting other people's sermons word-for-word without crediting the source is intellectual theft. It also commits the deadly sin of sloth (or acedia), since the one who takes other people’s sermons is not bothering to study out the material for him or herself.[5] By so doing, pastors lose their integrity and their divine authorization...

W.E. Sangster on Pulpit Plagiarism

"Plagiarism is a nasty sin. It would be nasty in anybody, but it is doubly nasty in a preacher. What kind of ethical sensitivity has a man who takes somebody else's work and passes it off as his own? From a man set apart to divide the word of truth it is dishonorable indeed.

The heartiness of our condemnation makes it necessary, however, to be plain what we mean by "plagiarism." A man is clearly no plagiarist (literally, abductor, kidnapper) who takes a sermon and tells his congregation from whose volume he has taken it. No congregation of author would resent that on rare occasions, especially if the sermon expounded some difficult theme, and the preacher felt unequal to the subject himself. Nor is a man a plagiarist who seeks stimulation for his mind from the work of other men. In that sense of the word Shakespeare would be a plagiarist. So many of his stories are borrowed; the lustrous garments are all his own. To cut a piece of cloth off another man's roll is not, I think, a sin in literature of homiletics, but to steal the suit that he has made and parade it as one's own is plain theft. The robber might as well have put his hand in our pocket and taken our purse.

Years ago I was on holiday at Tighnabruaich in the lovely Kyles of Bute. I went to worship on the Sunday evening and sat under the ministrations of a visiting preacher. When he announced his text, I was arrested at once, having preached on the same text myself two or three weeks before. I was still more arrested when he began with a flat contradiction of the text -- as I began myself. Word for word my sermon came out out -- just as it had appeared in a verbatim report from a religious journal which had published it without permission. The central illustration was a personal experience of mine. He gave it as his own. My children sitting beside me in the pew remembered the sermon and looked at me in astonishment. I blushed for the cloth. If I had been preaching in the pulpit a week later and had repeated my sermon, I should have been suspected of plagiarism.

But that salutary experience taught me something else. Nobody can steal like that and really make it his own. The whole thing lacked a certain conviction. It wasn't his! The experience he was describing had not been beaten out in his own life, and he said things I had learned in sorrow as though he was mildly inquiring of someone's cold in the head. On his lips that message did not do the work it was made to do. He was not behind it. If there were no ethics involved in plagiarism, it would still be a thing to avoid. One secret of power in preaching is to know the truth of what you are saying and believe it utterly. There are senses in which everyone can say with Paul, "my gospel," for there is something of himself in every message the preacher honestly prepares. You are false, and you feel false, when you steal another man's message and offer it as your own."

W.E. Sangster, The Craft of Sermon Construction, pp. 199-201

Wretched Radio on Pulpit Plagiarism

Back in the Spring of 2009 an example of Pulpit Plagiarism made waves around the blog-o-sphere.

Earlier that year a somewhat well-known pastor, Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv, told a personal story about an experience he had at VBS as a child. A short while later a lesser-known pastor, Tadd Grandstaff, shared the exact same life experience. He got caught plagiarizing.

Now I would show you the clips, but as luck would have it, all the original sources have been removed from the Internet. But as certain Pulpit Plagiarizers should know by now, nothing ever gets completely removed from the Internet. Here are just a few of the popular blogs that covered the issue in 2009.

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In addition, Todd Friel from Wretched Radio discussed it on his podcast which includes audio from the sermons in question HERE.

Around that same time, Pirate Christian Radio covered the controversy and followed up with Grandstaff's non-apology apology. You can listen to those clips below.


February 16, 2009

February 17, 2009

Interestingly enough, this is apparently not the first time Grandstaff has been caught plagiarizing! In 2007 he wrote this blog article criticizing some of the "stupid people" who confronted him about stealing the words and ideas of other and passing them off as his own. You can read that gem HERE.

The Guardian: Polish Priests Threatened With Jail For Plagiarising Sermons

Polish Priests Threatened With Jail For Plagiarising Sermons 

Kate Connolly in Berlin 

The Guardian, Friday 25 April 2008

Poland's 28,000 Roman Catholic priests have been told by church authorities that they may be fined if they are discovered to have plagiarised their sermons from the internet, and could even face up to three years in prison.

The church has published a self-help book on writing sermons to lure parish priests away from the growing habit of stealing the words of their fellow clergy.

Father Wieslaw Przyczyna, the co-author of To Plagiarise or not to Plagiarise, told Polish media that the guide had been written to address what had become an increasingly common problem, as more churches put their sermons online and an increasing numbers of priests used the internet.

Przyczyna, a sermon expert at Krakow's Pontifical Academy of Theology, added that the book's aim was to shame culprits and prompt them to confess what they had done.

"Unfortunately the practice has become more usual than not," he said. "But if a priest takes another priest's words and presents them as his own without saying where he got them from, this is unethical and against the rules of authorship."

Responses to the self-help guide suggest that the problem also exists in other parts of the world, particularly in Britain and America, where the practice has been dubbed "pastoral plagiarism". In the US, the Rev E Glenn Wagner, a former evangelical pastor, and the Rev Robert Hamm, a former minister, resigned in 2004 after admitting to lifting sermons.

Homilists - or experts in the art of religious discourse - argue that while it might be a popular view that no sermon is necessarily based on original thought, a priest should be encouraged to convey ideas in his own words to help foster better dialogue with his congregation.

The 150-page Polish guide is being sold to priests in for £6.

The church authorities have said they will start to carry out systematic checks in an attempt to clamp down on the practice and will rely on sharp-eared parishioners to compare online texts with those in Biblioteka Kaznodziejska, a monthly magazine that publishes sermons which have been delivered from the pulpit in Poland.

Church heads are also discussing the possibility of teaching trainee priests about the concept of intellectual property.

The main culprits are said not to be older priests, who often do not have access to the internet, but their more youthful counterparts.

Young priests turn to the web when they are less than proficient at public speaking, and particularly on a Saturday night when they are panicking about having nothing to say at mass the following morning, said Przyczyna.

But Przyczyna has already faced a backlash to his anti-plagiarism crusade. He told the online Catholic News Service that he had received complaints for "harassing priests and exposing their weaknesses".

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